VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 23 2007 - 17:47:54 CST

Hi,
  Sorry for the delayed email response, I'm way behind on answering
recent emails due to trying to get the new version of VMD finished up.

The safest way to get a high quality STL file out of VMD is to:
  1) download and install MSMS for your platform. MSMS is a
     solvent surface generator which VMD can use to make high quality
     surface representations, which also has the added benefit of generating
     surfaces that generally don't have self-intersections, which typically
     cause trouble with STL export and 3-D printing.
     
  2) load your molecule(s), set the colors and your atom selections, and
     then draw them with the MSMS representation (see commentary above)

  3) Open the File->Render menu, select "STL", and then export/render
     the scene.

You should then have an STL file which you can make 3-D models from.

Note that if you want to print a color model on one of the more advanced
3-D printers, you'll need to use VRML2 or one of the other scene description
formats, as the STL format lacks color information.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Sat, Jan 20, 2007 at 07:33:56PM +0900, mr.ibid_at_gmail.com wrote:
> Hello VMD List subscribers,
>
> I apologize if I am polluting your inbox. I would just like to ask if anyone
> can pass on to me the 'how to' kind of instructions an amatuer such as
> myself would need to use VMD to convert image files on the Protein Data Bank
> into STL files? would be much appreciated.
>
> Kind Regards
> Ken Lee 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078